Gomez, Spacek good to go

Scott Gomez and Jaroslav Spacek appear ready to play against the Philadelphia Flyers tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Bell Centre. Both participated in the morning skate in Brossard and were with their usual partners. Gomez was between Max Pacioretty and Brian Gionta while Spacek was paired with Roman Hamrlik on defence.

Yannick Weber will be a healthy scratch along with Tom Pyatt and Dustin Boyd.

And Canadiens prospect Michael Bournival was among the final cuts from the Canadian national junior team today. Louis Leblanc made the team as expected.

Way to get on the Max-Gomez-Gio bandwagon before it leaves the station. I think this is the best pair of players for Gomez to play with. Gio and Max are both high volume shooters, who should be able to best capitalize on Gomez’s play making. Max has the size to play the corners and the front of the net. While Gio has history with Gomez and is a right hand shot.

You all know that I’m not one to was poetic with optimism. But with Gionta back with Gomez and MaxPac on the other wing, this new shuffle could create a chain reactoin that results in an explosion of goals. Gio NEEDS to be with Gomer. No-one else can figure him out. MaxPac is the kind of player that could help that line – big, eager, and a threat to score goals. Reuniting Cami-Pleks-AK makes me want to throw myself on the ground and yell “praise the lord!”. I think Cami will be happy to get his old line back and if he returns to his old form, opposing goalies are in trouble when the Pleks line is on. Moen goes back where he belongs – on a crunch line – and may feel a bit more power and space playing against the lower lines of other teams. And whichever line that gest Moen gets a boost in physical play.

So to me, MaxPac coming up could have a strong effect on the whole team. Hoping so… and I don’t hope for nuthin’. I think this could really happen.

My brother is a journalist – a pretty good one – and he uses two fingers. I make fun of him… for that and the “smoking jacket” he often wears while writing which I think is actually a woman’s bathrobe. Journalists are quirky.

He is a friend of my family and has a very special place in our hearts. His article brought me to tears and really made me think about how wonderful life is and how special each person that we meet really is. I hope you will take time to read this touching story.

♪Your cares and troubles are gone. There’ll be no more from now on. From now on happy days are here again, the skies above are so clear again. So let’s sing a song of cheer again. Happy times, happy nights, happy days are here again♪

Pyatt, Boyd, Weber, Muller and an assistant are playing some 2 vs 2 pick up hockey against Auld, with the assistant at the point to keep the puck in the zone. Man has Boyd got some talent. He’s been a healthy scratch for most of the season probably because of his lazy defense and overall game without the puck but man, this guy can DEKE! It’s too bad he doesn’t back check because he could bring some good offense on a bottom 6 instead of Pyatt.

If I were coaching, I’d put a 5 man all rookie rotation whenever the Flyers Richards is on ice. Togther the unit of Subban – Webber, line of Pacioretty, Eller and Pyatt will show ‘disrespct’ to Richards. They will drive him crazy and get him off his game. If it was a HNIC telecast it would make for a better Coach’s Corner.

“It’s too much for one guy to shoulder. For us, we’re going to do it as a group. It’s about sharing that responsibility win or lose.” – Mike Cammalleri

I don’t get the lovefest for AK, he had a great start and has been average at best since. The team is doing well, JM is exploring options. Will MP stick this time? We have a good enough record that we can experiment. Halpern has put up points so AK on the 3rd line can be an attempt to get more balanced scoring.

In Detroit, Scotty Bowman would put two stars with a grinder often i.e. Kozlov-Federov-Brown and Yzerman-Shannahan-Some grinder, that way the grinder would make some space and forecheck while the skill players would have room to manouvre. It’s nothing new and shocking that Moen gets that role. Last year’s playoffs when Pouillot fell asleep it was Moen who took over on the Gomez line and he scored a great goal making Gonchar look like a fool in game 7, the guy (Moen) is a warrior don’t take him for granted, guys like him help teams win cups.

Why the lovefest? For the first time in a while (maybe ever), AK was playing like a 10th overall, strong on the puck, going to the net, even back-checking, helping out pinching defencemen. Never seen that from AK. Then he’s taken off the Jagr line and put with Gomez…(fill in here)…

Well it got Gionta going at least, lets face it injuries happen, if you have the opportunity to test various combinations in the worst case players will have some feel of playing with others. Imagine all year plex-cam-ak light it up, playoffs come and someone gets hurt, the team goes SOL. MTL ain’t on the bubble right now, they can afford to build chemistry between different combinations. I think come playoff time the AK-Plek-Cam line will be reunited.

I don’t think AK has been consistent enough to be honest. Over the long haul the guy is a 25 goal, 50 point player, solid 2nd line winger but not a first liner..

Exactly. The way I see it, Gionta was promoted to Plek line to get him going because he has the C. Why was AK, who was arguably the best forward to start the season demoted to play with Gomez? Gionta doesn’t produce so take him off the line with the struggling Gomez. Now AK doesn’t produce with Gomez and he gets demoted to the 4th line? No justice there. It’s because Gionta has the C and Martin has given him priority over any other forward this season. AK belongs on the top line with Plek and Cam, end of story.

Depends how patient Ted leonsis is. George Mcphee I dont think will be in a rush to fire Boudreau (seeing as he hired him), but Leonsis might not be so patient in watching his team slide. Also, Pittsburgh fired Therrien to bring in Bylsma, and Bylsma brought them to the next level, so washington might have the same thaught process that Boudreau has worn out his welcome with the players and now its time to bring in someone fresh to take the team to the next level.

It would be a shame, because I really like Bruce Boudreau. Personally, I think he just has a team thats mentally fragile. However, as someone who has ovechkin in their fantasy hockey pool, anything that gets Ovie back to playing to his usual standard will be welcome.

I think Boudreau may last the season, depends on the owner’s attitude about things and how much pressure he is exerting on the GM for a shakeup to get the team rolling, an early playoff exit may seal his fate but if the Caps can’t go .500 in their next 10 it might very well happen. Sooner or later, someone’s got to answer for a lack of a good defensive scheme 4 years into Boudreau’s tenure.

Robert – Mark French is the man in Hershey and he had an off the charts season last year as a 1st time head coach. Right now, the Bears are are doing OK but not setting the league on fire. Difficult to say if McPhee would go with a guy who has limited experience. Of course, Hitchcock is available. As well as the usual suspects. Hey, there’s always Patrick Roy. He could also double as the team’s goalie!

!. Has anyone seen if Bobrovsky is confirmed for tonight, I assume he starts because Boucher went last night.

2.Also people gotta ( in the words of someone famous ) “chill out” about all this AK instead of Moen talk. I think it is the common consensus on the site that Plex, Cammy and AK is our best scoring line and I agree 100%. I admit I was a bit upset a few days ago when I saw the practice lines, but then I had time to think about it. First of all, just because 3 guys start together, doesn’t mean they will play the whole game together. It does not even mean they will play the majority of the game together. I also looked at the AK-Lapps-Halpern line and thought, that gives us 4 good balanced lines. But most importantly, if anyone thinks that if we get down a goal that AK and Moen so not switch lines, I don’t think they have been watching all our games and paying attention to the juggling JM does.

3. Hope Max Pac does well but way too much talk on here like he is the second coming of Guy LaFleur. Our fan base historically has a tendancy to have high expectations for certain players for reasons that are generally unbeknownst to the majority of the hockey world. He’s tearing up the AHL, yes, but be patient with him. I hope he gets of to a great start and lights it up, but it’s a step faster up here and he needs to adjust. I don’t want to come on here if he is scoreless after 3 games to listen to people bash him like a bum. Especially if it’s after a game that I’ve had a few drinks.

4. We are on a 2 game losing streak because early penalties put us in a hole early Friday night ( whether bad reffing or bad playing ) against the best team in the West. We desperately fought back and ran into a hot Jimmy Howard in the third ( of course he lets in 5 on 27 shots vs the Kings Monday night). The next night we go into Toronto, who are always up for us, we are down because of the night before’s loss and we lose. Alex Auld had a very bad period and let in 2 bad goals. Even though I thought in his other starts, he had played exceptionally well for us. I actually thought he was our best and only player on the ice against Atlanta and he played well against the Isles to win 3-1 facing over shots. Unless anyone here has been an NHL backup goaltender and knows what it’s like to play once a month has can do it well, they have no right to say he sucks. Also we are on a 2 game losing streak because of the reasons I’ve stated, not because we now suck or the coach sucks or we need to trade for this or get risd of that.

I have been calling for the MacPac call up to play with Gio and Gomer for about a month now. Welcome aboard to the many of you who jumped on this bandwagon only after the call-up and who were against this move initially, arguing that MaxPac should stay and develop confidence in Hamilton for the rest of the year, possibly with a playoff call-up. My reasoning is very simple. I think the Habs should try to win the cup this year. To do this, we need to get by the Flyers in a 7 game series and the only way to do this is with 3 scoring lines. We are better in nets and about even on the blue line. In the absence of a trade before the deadline, our best shot is the line-up we are scheduling tonight, with the exception of flipping AK46 with Moen. Hopefully, JM will make this change later in the game or at the latest after tomorrow’s game with the Bruins. Playing this line-up consistently over the next 20 games will tell us what we truly need come trade deadline time, a top 6 forward or a top 4 D-man.